Beware the Water
by EternallyDrowning
Summary: Mai wants to tell Naru her feelings, but when an unknown force on their vacation makes her and Lin switch bodies, only a True Union between her and the older man can turn them back! But the spirit has other plans for Mai... LinMai NaruMai LinxMai NaruxMai
1. Chapter 1

**Yeah, I know you're all gonna kill me for starting another story. But this is to get me going on my old GH fic. I'm at a bust with that one, so I decided to make this one to one, give me motivation to edit/redo my other one, as well as giving all the fans of GH another fic to read!**

**Many of you are more pro NaruxMai, but seriously, Lin needs some love too! Come on people, there aren't even ten fics with Lin paired with someone! (besides OCs, but those do NOT count) I mean, COME ON people. Lin is freaking HAWT!**

**So this is a story about the both of them with Mai in the middle XD**

* * *

"Paradise!" Ayako yelled ecstatically as the resort came into view.

Everyone in the overcrowded van crammed into each other in order to look out the window to see what had made the miko so excited, everyone except Lin, who was driving, and Naru, who was too composed and stoic to do such a thing. Even Masako, and all her lady like manners, shifted positions in her seat, leaning past Takigawa, in order to get a good look.

A beautiful lakeside villa, white, and noble, with tall pillars and balconies overlooking the vast sparkling lake, clear enough to reflect the reds and golds of the setting sun in perfect replication. It was a beautiful resort, one meant for relaxation, luxury, and a break from it all.

The SPR team had anticipated this day for the past few weeks, the proper paperwork was filled out, the best of information gathered, and past histories researched. Everyone had been called together to complete the task, and for once, it wasn't for an investigation.

They were here on vacation!

Mai had been the one to bring up the topic, saying how all Naru did was work, work work, and even a vacation was needed in order to higher one's potential. A vacation was needed to get rid of pent up stress, which would ultimately lead to better, more efficient, work from the team.

She had fluffed the crap out of that speech, but it was only after repeated and exaggerated statistics that it had finally worked on her stoic boss.

Naru had agreed.

So here they were, entering the beautiful building, only to be greeted with a shiny marble room full of paintings, sculptures, and even a fountain. It had a high ceiling, with a large mural painted on it of a perfect afternoon day, with a few clouds adding believability to it. There were a multitude of doors, all alike, all labeled with a plaque saying which room was which: The Parlor, The Lounge, The Resaurant, The Kitchen, The Elevator, The Stairs, The Swimming Pool…

It was heaven for the overworked team.

Takigawa let out a long, low whistle at the sight of all the expensive details the place contained, his eyes fixed on a stone statue of a small naked child aiming a bow and arrow at something only it could see. "Jeez, you could buy a house with all the artifacts in this place," the monk said absentmindedly, hand reaching out to poke the tip of the arrow, only to pull it back in pain once he had done so, letting a small sound of pain escape his mouth.

"Honestly," Ayako sighed, taking a few steps closer to her immature companion, grabbing hold of his hand to check the damage on his finger. It was a tiny wound, almost like a paper cut, though a single drop of blood was forming, "You have no appreciation for the arts and the intelligence they represent."

"How is giving a naked baby a deadly weapon intelligent?" the monk growled, letting out a childish huff in rebellion as Ayako placed a band-aid on the drama-queen's finger.

"If you break anything, it's coming out of your paychecks," a monotonous voice called from off to the side of the group, silencing all arguements.

"Naru!" Mai called surprised, before turning toward him and giving him a slight glare, "We're supposed to be on vacation." She waved her arms around for dramatic emphasis. "You should try to lighten up."

"Yeah, Naru," Takigawa joined, "You should really try wearing some greens, or maybe some yellow. It would really bring out your eyes."

Mai felt a vein in her head throb.

How was it that _she_ more of an adult than _him_?

Sensing her rising temper, Takigawa quickly ruffled up his younger comrade's hair, letting out a loud laugh at the whole situation. Perhaps he was trying to picture Naru wearing something other than black. Mai did as well, and couldn't help but bursting out laughing with him.

Their stoic boss ignored them, uninterested in the common lapses of insanity his subordinates were known for. Instead, he held out his hand, which was holding three red key cards.

"There are two beds to a room," Naru started calmly, the red cards adding more color to him than his black attire ever could. "You'll have to partner up and share a room, but one person will have a room to themselves.

Mai snorted. "And who's that going to be, oh great and fearless leader?"

"That's up for you to decide. Lin and I are sharing the room furthest down the hall," the handsome man spoke. The tall silent China-man next to him brought out a red card from his breast pocket, proving that they were indeed sharing a room.

_Wait… The furthest room down the hall… That's the best room on the floor! _Mai growled in her head, _Of _course _Naru would call dibs, he just did it all sneakily…_

"I don't mind sharing, so you can decide amongst yourselves who you want to get the single," John said sweetly, a smile on his face.

"Well don't think I'm fine with sharing," Ayako spat. "I'm a lady, therefore I get the single room."

"You mean you're the oldest," Takigawa mumbled under his breath.

"What was that!" she hissed back at him, her long, red, manicured nails digging into her palms in anger.

"Alright, alright. I'll share," the monk said, holding up his hands in surrender. "You can have the room. No need to get into a big fight about it."

"Well I'm glad that's settled," Mai said with a sigh. It'd be best if we kept the rooms with one gender, so Monk you'll be with John and I'll be with- AH!" she screamed in realization, all train of thought forgotten except the terrifying one she was dealing with now.

If Naru was with Lin, and John was with the monk, and Ayako had a room all to herself, that meant she was left with… MASAKO!

"No way!" she sobbed, tears threatening to show themselves in her eyes. She had been so excited for this vacation and she would have to sleep in the same room as Masako. They were such opposites it was going to be impossible to feel comfortable. "My… my vacation…" she cried, resisting the urge to fall dramatically to her knees. Instead, she took a quick glance at the medium who had strangely gotten closer to Naru than she had been before. She was proper, and elegant, her kimonoed arm covering her mouth, but it did no good in hiding the distasteful glare in her eyes, the possible sneer on her face. Masako didn't like the idea any better than Mai did.

Ayako seemed to sense the fierce tension between the two girls. She let out a loud, depressed sigh, before walking over to Mai and resting her well groomed hand on her shoulder. "Masako, why don't you take the single room, I'll share with Mai."

These words made the high schooler look up teary eyed at the miko. "You'll share a room with me?"

"Just think of it as a girl's night. It'll be fun!"

"Thank you, Ayako!" Mai grinned happily, immediately encasing the woman in a tight hug.

"Enough, enough!" the miko said dramatically, miming that she was unable to breathe, "Let's just go to our room and get settled in before it's too dark. I'm exhausted! And I still want to take a shower. The van smells like a bus…." She grabbed a piece of her long hair and took a whiff, scrunching her face into a disapproving grimace. "No offense, Lin." she said, casting a hesitant glance toward the handsome silent man. He said nothing, nor showed that he was insulted or angry the she had openly down talked his vehicle. Ayako took this as a good sign, and turned back to her new roommate. "Let's go, Mai."

* * *

Ayako stepped out of the bathroom, trod in a warm fuzzy white bathrobe, with a soft towel lifted toward her long locks of hair. She was quite surprised by what she saw, and took a moment to stand in dumb silence at the sight.

Mai.

She was wearing a small bikini, with fabric of plaid gold with thin strips of brown. The priestess had never seen her in such a swimsuit before. The last swimsuit the young girl had was a simple blue one-piece. This was only held together by a couple of strings! Surprised as she was, Ayako found that the design and color of it suited Mai perfectly, and really brought out her character, but she had never notice how pale the girl was before.

"Is something wrong?" the high schooler asked, noticing that her roommate was staring at her.

"Oh?" the miko said, raising an eyebrow, "You trying to catch the attention of someone?"

"Don't be silly," Mai said with an annoyed, yet dismissive tone, a small blush adorning her pale face, "I'm just going to take a quick dip in the lake."

"Mai, you shouldn't swim by yourself, especially at night," Ayako said sternly, starting to rub at wet hair with a towel, now that she was over the shock of seeing Mai, to keep the stray beads of water from falling onto her fluffy white robe, "And the resort pamphlet says that the lake gets pretty deep, even by the shore. Why don't you just swim in the pool?"

"I know," Mai answered, somewhat in awe that the miko had actually read the pamphlet, "but I really want to get in a few minutes before bed, and the pool is already closed. I saw a big dock running into the lake when we came here. I'll just stay close to that. I'll be fine. I promise." The high school girl gave a reassuring smile, and crossed her heart to show how serious she was about keeping the promise.

"Fine, but don't come haunting me when you drown," the older woman answered with a huff, throwing the now damp towel over the back of a chair and grabbing a comb to take its place.

"Ah! That's mean!" Mai laughed, sticking out her tongue at her friend to try and lighten the mood. It worked, for the priestess gave a small smile, before it was replaced with an irritated look.

"If you're going to go swim, swim! It's already getting dark out. Just make sure you come back before everyone is in bed, got that?"

"Yes!" Mai answered happily, grabbing a towel of her own off the rack next to the bathroom and scurrying out of the room.

* * *

"Where did Mai go?" Naru demanded once he saw Ayako walking into the lounge, Ayako all by herself, Ayako without Mai.

"She said she was going to take a quick swim in the lake before bed," the miko yawned dismissively, too tired to do anything else.

"Damn it!" Takigawa hissed as he shoved himself out of the chair he was sitting in, and bolting toward the door of the room.

"What?" Ayako asked quickly, realizing that something was wrong, terribly wrong. "What happened!?" She demanded of the fleeing monk. Her words were completely ignored, the man she pleaded to too busy running out of the room to give her any answer. "What happened!"

"The lake… Something…" Masako said terrified, her face paler than she had seen in a long time, her eyes wide and fearful, her hand extending and pointing out the large window to the world outside. "Something's there… Something's in the lake…" she repeated, as though in a trance. "So many… So many souls…"

The medium fainted.

"Miss Hara!" Naru called loudly, running over to her side and catching her just before she hit the ground. He took a quick glance over her and her unconscious form. "She's in shock. John, go grab some towels! Lin, go outside and help Takigawa find Mai! Ayako, go find a one of the workers and call for the medic!" he barked, his orders so clear that no one was even thinking of not doing as he said.

Everyone started scurrying about, Ayako turning around and bolting out the door she had just came from, determined to find help for Masako as fast as she could, too worried about Mai to think of anything different. She wasn't sure what had happened, but she knew Mai was in danger. She was alone. She had let Mai go off all alone… John followed closely behind her, jogging down the hallway, yet still far behind the priestess. His room was just around the next corner, he would grab the towels from the rack next to the bathroom. He would run to the kitchen next, and borrow some hot water and a large basin… Lin was already outside, the night sky bright with the glow of the full moon. The stars were everywhere, lighting a path toward the glittering lake. There were two paths to choose from, each leading to a different part of the lake. Quickly scanning the banks as far as he could see, he saw a small figure of a running person, Takigawa, who had taken the right fork. He proceeded to take the left.

* * *

Mai waded out into the lake water, liking the feeling of its cool breath against her exposed skin. It was a lot warmer than she expected. It had to be at least the temperature of what the pool would have been, if not warmer. The depth was up to her hips, her bellybutton still exposed above the water. She looked down, seeing a perfect mirror image of herself on its surface.

She was so pale in the moonlight.

Gazing up, Mai caught sight of the giant orb. It was full, and beautiful, a perfect circle. The stars were just as beautiful, like a glittering collection of jewels across the night sky. Leaning back, she felt the water wash against her back, her legs coming up, her body floating. She enjoyed it like this, just her and the moon, with no one else in the water to keep her out of focus. Closing her eyes, she gave a small kick, and went further out into the lake by a foot or two.

It was peacef-

The sound of loud footsteps caught her attention.

"Is someone there?" Mai called, body shifting so she was standing in the water, just below her breasts now, staring toward the direction of the noise, She took a few steps toward the shore, as though that would give her a better view. "Ayako?" It had to be her right? She's the only one Mai told where she was going. Unless one of the other team members came…

No one answered, only the wind rustling through the trees and the waves splashing softly against the shore.

_Did I imagine it?_ Mai wondered confused, eyebrows furrowed slightly in thought. She must have. She probably just heard a branch bending in the wind, and confused it with someone walking toward her.

Now relaxed once again from her small little outburst, Mai was able to take in the feeling of her legs treading against the water, her arms pushing away the water by her chest. She liked the feeling, the lake all to herself, no one to please or take orders from. All she had to do here was relax, letting her body work only a small bit to get a sort of peace.

Mai had never been a strong swimmer, but she could tread for a long time, and was an expert of the back float. She could do the front crawl, but it was a lot more difficult for her to do than she would have liked, but she could still get by, as long as there weren't any strong currents.

Something brushed against her leg, causing her to squeak. Her foot kicked outward, hitting something solid and sending it away. A fish? It didn't feel like a fish. It felt different, like something else…

It returned, hitting against her leg now, biting her deeply as though in anger. Mai winced, her eyes filling with pain. She kicked her legs again, trying to shake it off, but whatever it was wouldn't let go. It stayed on her, weighing her leg down, causing her kicks to be nothing but the regular treads she was doing before.

"Get off!" Mai cried toward the thing below the surface, her face peering down below the depths, trying to see what had a hold of her through the darkness. She was able to make some of it out. Whatever it was, was pale, extremely pale, and very bony She'd never seen a fish like it, then again she hadn't seen many fish. It felt like it had multiple strong tongues, but she knew that wasn't right. What could it-

Mai let out a choked scream.

The thing grabbing hold of her wasn't a fish. It wasn't a fish at all! It was a hand!

_What the hell is... This is a joke, this is a joke…_ she cried in her mind, looking desperately for something the hand was attached to. There was nothing. Where the arm should have been just faded into nothing, becoming a part of the water.

Again, Mai felt something brush against her, this time the second one wasted no time in latching on to her, grabbing her tightly, wrapping its bony fingers around her flesh.

"Rin! Pyo! Tou! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!" she called loudly, her hand sweeping across the water to form the seals. There was a small flash of bright light, and she felt the hand grasping her leg weaken, then let go. She felt a small moment of relief, but that immediately turn to terrified shriek as two hands tore out of the lake water directly in front of her and latched on to her wrists, pulling them beneath the surface.

Her eyes widened.

She had thought they were spirits, or perhaps some sort of corpse like thing reanimated to move. But they weren't. What rose out of the water was not a corpse, it wasn't even solid, it was see through!

_They're part of the water!_ she gasped in thought. _The water is-_

Mai emptied her mind except for the ward she had learned from the monk, the only things left she had for defense. Taking a deep breath she opened her mouth to let the clear, powerful words flow. "Naumaku sanmanda bazarada dankan! Namaku sanmanda bazarada dan-"

A new water-hand bolted out of the lake, slamming down on her mouth and exploding into a large splash, every last drop of it entering her mouth.

She gagged, choked, tried desperately to breathe against the invasive element, but it was useless. She felt the fingers of the hand inside her throat, crawling downwards towards her lungs with its cold figners. Coughing violently, she was able to spit some of it out, swallowing the rest so it rested in her gut, squirming in protest, trying to find a way out.

She wanted to vomit.

They came in waves, more and more of the terrifying things, not alive, not dead, not spirit, not water.

What were they!

_Someone… Someone please help me!_ she begged in her mind desperately, her voice blocked as the water from the hand inside her ripped its way through the opening of her mouth and poured back into the lake, temporarily drowning her from the inside. Tears were streaming down her face, her vision blurred because of them. She didn't care. All she cared about was getting the thing inside her out! _Someone… Anyone…_

"Naru!" Mai screamed as soon as she was able, the hands of water wrapped themselves around her, grabbing hold of her arms and legs, tightening painfully against her limbs, getting tighter, and tighter, until it was painful just to keep quiet. "NARU!"

"Mai!" someone yelled, their voice distant, yet they must have been yelling at the top of their lungs to be heard so far. "Mai! Get out of the water!" She tried to look around, to find the source of the voice, the one that would save her, but she couldn't see anything. The arms refused to let her move at all. She could only see what was out of the corners of her eyes, looking to the only place visible that wasn't the lake. All she could see was the dark shadows cast by the trees, and the hands, the liquid hands forming more and more. Soon there were hundreds of them, all closing in on her, grabbing at her…

"No! Stop it! Let go!" she begged, struggling against the hands of water as more and more continued to grab hold of her. "Naru!" she screamed again. The hands were trying to drag her down now, pulling painfully against her limbs, drawing her deeper and deeper down into the lake, her feet barely touching with their tiptoes. She was terrified now. Nothing was working. Her only spiritual defenses had failed her, and now she wasn't even able to perform them, all she could do was fight against the hands with her will to live, and the hope that someone would find her in time. But it was terrifying, for each second the hands double their strength. She was bending now, her back starting to succumb to the power of the things trying to pull her under. She was going to lose against these things, these hands! She was going to drown! The realization that she was going to die shoved all of the air out of her lungs and let out the loudest scream she had ever made. "NARUUU-"

She was pulled under the water.

* * *

"Mai!" Lin yelled, racing down the path toward the lake as fast as his legs could move him. She was under water now, the ripples and bubbles of where she went under ominously disappearing, making him unsure of where she went under. He had to try, he had to save her. "Mai!" he yelled again as he reached the bank. He jumped, his body curving into a sharp dive. His body speared through the murky water. He moved his head around, trying to spot her through the darkness. He couldn't see anything. Diving deeper, he kicked his legs more strongly, going toward the deepest part of the section they were in. He had to find her. She had to be there, she had to!

His arms flew everywhere around him, hoping beyond hope to find a part of Mai to grab onto. He searched desperately, knowing that Mai wouldn't have enough air to last long. She had been screaming when she went under, screaming for Naru. Her mouth would have flooded with water, going into her lungs, keeping her from breathing, drowning her…

_Where are you_, he demanded, _Mai?_

His vision was constantly obscured by his long bangs, rendering him temporarily blind at moments, though he doubted he would be able to see beyond a foot in front of him through he murky water anyway, yet he kept his eyes open, searching. Multiple times he had to shove his red tie down, to give him better ability to grasp and grope.

His fingers brushed against something soft, solid. Hopeful, desperate, he lunged forward, wrapping his arms around whatever it was he had hold of, not daring to let go, forcing it toward him to get a better view.

* * *

Everything was cold. So cold. So dark. She was numb, encased in a thick veil of an unseen force. What had happened? She couldn't seem to remember. Was she falling? Or was she rising? Everything seemed out of focus, distorted. Was it all a dream? Yes, it must be a dream. It wasn't a special dream, she didn't think so anyway. A regular dream? It had been so long since she had one, she couldn't be sure. It felt wrong. It was scary. She couldn't move, she wanted to speak, to call out to someone, but her voice wouldn't work, her mouth wouldn't even open. All she could do was look up, or was it down? Did it matter? Everywhere was gray, everywhere, above, below, she was trapped in such a deep gray with only a bright circle of light in view, churning and swaying the longer she looked at it, as though it didn't really exist to begin with, like it was fighting between reality and illusion. Is this what it felt like to die?

She didn't want to die.

She wanted to wake up.

Her eyes tried to open, as though that would help, but nothing changed, everything was still dark, dark except for the orb. Did she even have her eyes closed to begin with? Everything seemed the same, everything blurry, the bright orb still hovering beyond her reach, but her eyes becoming strange, heavy.

_Someone_, she called in her mind, her voice still failing her, _Someone come find me. Someone… save me…_

But who was there to hear her? Who was there to answer?

She closed her eyes, no longer wanting to see the bright orb and its shimmering.

_Someone…_

She felt something grab her arm, a strong, firm hand. She was slightly scared for a moment, though she wasn't sure why. She opened her eyes to see what was holding on to her, but everything was still slightly blurry, distorted. Yet she could make out something. A body, a face, the fabric of a white shirt, a strip of fabric floating around the body, the darkness of hair roaming around the person's face in an enchanted way. She wanted to know who this person was, trying to make her brain work harder, though it didn't want to. Things cleared slightly, and she was able to make out a strong jaw, a long face, a set of stern lips, and dark, dark familiar eyes.

_Lin… _she thought, her mind too fuzzy to be confused. She was too tired to ask what he was doing here, too tired to ask why he was pulling her against his chest. She just wanted to sleep. It was as though she was drained, not really caring about anything. Not that fact that someone came, or that fact that she was being held so close to her savior. She was too exhausted to care.

Her eyes closed.

_

* * *

_

_Thank God_, Lin cried in his mind, full of relief, as he pulled the unconscious form of a petite high school girl toward him. She was so small, Lin had never realized just how small she was, how delicate, how breakable. She was incredibly pale, the water swaying her hair around her small face, making it seem so unnaturally light. Wrapping his arm securely around her naked waist, he hoisted her next to him, making sure not to weaken his hold in the least.

His feet hit the floor of the lake, getting a firm hold on the floor before pushing off with incredible strength, rocketing him toward the air beyond the water. They were nearly to the surface now, his body staring to slow. He tightened his grip on the waist of his co-worker, using his free arm to help him swim toward the surface, hoping beyond hope that he wasn't too late in saving Mai, hoping he would have enough strength left to get her to shore.

Lin erupted through the surface of the water, using the last of his strength to pull Mai's limp body upward and into the air with him. His mouth opening wide to take in a huge breath of oxygen, the screaming of his lungs replaced with heavy breathing and gasping. Mai's head fell limply against his chest. He held her chin, lifting it up so she would be further away from the water.

He was so tired, but he wasn't going to stop now. He couldn't. Turning on his back, he slid Mai up on his chest, becoming her flotation device, her safety. He did a one armed back stroke, getting closer and closer to shore with each kick, each movement of his arm.

How had they gotten so far out? They were in the middle of the lake, the shore seeming like a mile away.

Lin continued to swim for what seemed like forever, his muscles aching, his strides getting slower and less efficient. Finally, he could see the sand below the surface, and soon he found him self trudging through the waist deep water, dragging Mai behind him. Small though she may be, she was dead weight, incredibly heavy to his exhausted self. After three more steps, with her weight and the resistance of the water, Lin fell. His face planted into the water, engulfing his face all the way to the corner of his jaw. He didn't know what happened to Mai. He tried to struggle, to get up, but he couldn't move.

"Lin? Lin! Did you find her!" Takigawa's voice rang, filling the Chinese man's ears with a sweet ringing sound. Someone was coming. They were going to be okay. He tried to speak a reply, but was only able to make gurgling sounds, the water entering his mouth and down his throat painfully. The monk seemed to see the situation they were in, his footsteps racing toward them, growing louder, and louder. "Oh shit! Lin!" he screamed. "LIN!"

* * *

He was beneath the surface of the water, his body cold, numb, unmoving. He was trapped within the current, floating toward the surface, being dragged down toward the dark. He had no control. He was searching for something. What was it? Everything was gray. Why was he here?

Movement caught Lin's attention.

The water was swirling around him, a giant rope like current forming a great circle. He watched it, awed. There was something strange about it. It was as though it were alive. It circled faster and faster, until Lin was sure the thing had a head, and a body, a long rope-like body, with two bright golden eyes…

A serpent.

It's head was getting and closer and closer to its tail, swimming faster the closer it got. He wanted to get away from it, as fast as he could, but his body wouldn't move. Something was holding him, locking him in place. He turned his head to see what it was.

His eyes widened.

A man with a long face framed in dark black hair, a strong jaw, lips set and stern, dark eyes…

It was him. It was Lin!

_But if I'm behind myself, and that's the real me… who am I right now? _he wondered.

The serpent bit its tail, and he was blinded in light.

* * *

Mai slowly opened her eyes, unsure of where she was. Everything she saw stung her eyes, everything incredibly bright, distorted, as though someone had blinded her with a powerful light source. She closed her eyes momentarily, opening them again when she felt it was safe.

She was staring at a gold ceiling. Her body wasn't moving, but she didn't feel afraid. Something warm was wrapped around her, pinning her gently to something soft beneath her body. A bed. She was laying on a bed. Whose room was this? It certainly wasn't hers, she knew that at least. The room she shared with Ayako had a theme of blue. A glow from a lamp was off somewhere to the side. Turning her head, she tried to find out where she was using its light.

"You're awake," came the familiar voice of her boss, somewhere right next to her. She turned her head the other way, taking in the full view of him.

He was sitting in a chair pulled up right next to the bed, just as handsome as she had remembered, his hair as jet black as ever, framing his angel like face. His eyes were smoldering… distant, but they seemed so tired for some reason. They were bloodshot, as though he hadn't slept all night, the bags beneath them proving that he hadn't. He looked so exhausted, but as he looked at her, his face seemed to light up, as though he were greatly relieved.

"What happened?" she managed to say, her voice cracking, soar, coming out a lot deeper than she had expected. She tried to bring a hand up to her throat, to soothe the ache, but Naru stopped her, placing a gentle yet firm hand on her arm pinning it down.

"You need to rest. The two of you almost drowned," he ordered calmly.

She had always wondered how her boss was able to get such respect and obedience from the sound of his voice. He was so young, yet he sounded as though he had been through more life-altering situations than everyone combined, earning him respect, and giving him intelligence even most adults lacked.

She wondered if that was true. She wondered if he would ever tell her about his life to her.

_Wait the two of… _she thought, trying to remember who the second person was.

Her eyes widened.

_Lin!_

"Naru! What happened!? The lake, there were these hands, grabbing, pulling… Who saved us!? Did they see what it was!?" she demanded suddenly, bolting up from the bed and into a sitting position, ignoring the searing pain in her throat and the sudden dizziness that made her head swim.

"I said you need to rest," Naru repeated coldly, shoving her back down on the bed with so much strength it made her wonder why he didn't have any noticeable bulging muscles ripping through his shirt. "Takigawa found you and gave you both CPR. We'll talk more in the morning after you've gotten more sleep."

"Fine, goodnight" she huffed, turning away from him childishly as though that was the same as kicking him out of the room, pulling the blankets closer around her chin. Her back was turned to her boss, so she wasn't able to see the look of surprise and confusion sprawling across his face. If she had, she would have noticed something was wrong.

But something else caught her attention.

The second bed in the room was directly across from where she was looking. The person asleep in it wasn't Lin. The form was much too small to belong to Lin. She couldn't see who it was, the blankets kept everything from view but the back of their head. That hair definitely didn't belong to Lin, it was more brown than black, and shorter.

Who was it? She didn't remember anyone with a hair style like that. Did Ayako get a haircut while she was out? No… even Ayako wasn't that small…

Which meant…

Throwing back the covers, Mai jumped out of bed, once again ignoring the swimming of her head that made everything seem so much further away from her than they actually were, and the sudden urge to vomit her guts out. She was determined, she needed to know. Something was eating away at the back of her thoughts, screaming at her, but she didn't know what it was saying, her blood was pounding too loudly in her ears.

She heard Naru spring up behind her, his body walking forward slowly, overrun with exhaustion, yet still determined to make his co-worker rested more than he did. For once in her life, Mai ignored her boss, and continued to walk forward toward the sleeping figure, the sense of dread filling her gut growing even more as she took each step.

She peered down at the person, her eyes widening at the sight.

It was a girl. A girl with a soft, pale face, short brown hair, and long, long eyelashes, and soft freckles. She was sleeping soundly, or perhaps she was still unconscious, her breaths coming out in even intakes and exhales of air.

Mai felt her heart leap to her throat.

_No way… No way. No way, no way, no way. This is a lie, There's no way this can…_

The person sleeping on the bed was her.

But how was that possible? Was she having an out of body experience? That must be it. She was so exhausted form drowning she was experiencing such a phenomenon. Perhaps it was a new form of dream?

"The medic says she had a very close call, any later and she would have been a risk for life-time damage from the lack of oxygen. She may be unconscious for a few more hours, but she'll wake up."

Wait. Naru was talking to her? He could see her? Was this a part of his powers too?

"You can see me?" she asked, her voice coming out as a course gasp of air.

Naru cast an uneasy glance to his subordinate.

_No, no, he can see me. I really am here. But if I'm here, who is…_

She turned to look at her self on the bed again. Yes, it was her, there was no mistake about that.

_Then… who am I!?_

She turned every which way, looking for something that could help her. There, on the far wall by the window, was just the object she needed. A mirror. Desperate for immediate answers, Mai raced over to the reflective glass, stumbling and nearly falling countless times on her way over, knocking over a chair on the way. Naru was about to follow her, to stop her from whatever she was doing, but decided against it, letting the girl have her moment of panic. She reached the cold pane of mirror, her hands bracing herself against the wall to keep from falling over from the sudden nausea that was rising up from her throat.

Expectantly, Mai peered into the mirror, expecting to see her own face, her short brown hair, her long eyelashes, her pale skin, her light freckles…

But the face that looked back at her wasn't her own.

It was Lin's.

* * *

**Read and review please! I'll probably be revising this chapter's ending later, but for now it will have to do.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so Mai's reaction MAY be a little confusing for you, so I'm going to just flat out say it now. You're probably going to think: Why doesn't she just tell them right away that she's not Lin? Well, she's going into hysterics. At least, I tried to make it sound that way anyway… **

**Whatever.**

**Oh, and I keep spelling fucking NO as ON, it's really pissing me off. If I missed any while I was correcting it I am sorry. Me and my stupid spelling habits…**

**Hope you enjoy it anyway!**

* * *

"Why!" Mai gasped, seeing the man's face in her reflection. "Why is this-"

She ran her hands across her face, roughly feeling, stretching, pinching. When that didn't seem to do anything to change the look of her reflection she slapped her cheeks, hard. The red burn that came was bright and not wanting to disappear from the reflection of the man's face.

"Lin!" Naru said coldly, yet there was a strange form of shock and concern in his voice. He had never seen his friend do anything like this before. "Stop."

Lin didn't seem to hear him, and was to busy shrieking and causing self inflicted wounds to notice.

"Why is this happening! Why! How is this even possible! I want to go back!" the Chinese man kept whimpering, his voice still raw, yet it seemed so panicked.

Naru had never seen his co-worker act like this before. It was like he was someone else entirely. Acting childishly when he didn't get the information he wanted, no self restraint, panicked, giving himself self inflicted wounds… When the freaked man started pulling viciously at his hair, Naru decided to act.

"Enough!" the usually stoic man hissed, his eyes filled with as much ferocious threatening intent as his voice. He gripped his arm under Lin's, using his other to and his leg to kick him off balance, sending the assistant into a hard Judo-throw onto the floor.

"Ow!" Lin shrieked, his face contorting into a wince of pain, his elbows taking the brunt of the fall. Immediately, his eyes focused on his boss, sending the teenager an angry glare. "What was that for!? That hurt!" he hissed.

"Get a hold of yourself, Lin. This isn't like you at all," his boss said in a monotone, his eyes narrowing. Was Lin possessed? No… that couldn't be right. It would take a high level spirit in order to possess someone as strong as Lin. Regular spirits can't possess Diviners without time and energy… If such a spirit were here, hey would have noticed, right?

And then the sound came. It was fanatic, hysteric; a lapse of reality.

It was laughter.

Lin was laughing.

Slowly, the Chinese man's body shifted, allowing him to stand again. His shoulders trembled in restraint, but it was soon discarded as the sound bellowed out of the man's lungs in a complete deranged laugh.

"Not myself-" the unfamiliar man laughed, "-of course I'm not!" He continued to laugh, but it changed. It wasn't so out there… No. The laughter now was fake, forced, as though someone were trying to make others believe they were happy. Soon it was as though he were crying.

Naru's eyes widened.

Lin _was_ crying! His shoulders shook with sobs, his arms encircling him in order to contain himself, but it wasn't until he looked up at his boss that it was noticeable. Tears streaked the older man's face, silently falling down his skin. He looked so completely defeated, so undeniably beaten, that Naru couldn't even recognize the man to be his assistant at all.

"Naru…" Lin said, his voice weak, fragile, his hands clutching tightly at his hair as though to keep himself together. "Help. Me."

And then he fainted.

* * *

A serpent, circling him. Circling and circling… What did it want? Was it angry? Was it going to attack? But there was no such thing, no such movement. Instead, it bit its tail. A bright light…

What had happened? Lin felt that there was something from before that he should be remembering, something extremely important. Yet, try as he could, he could only remember the snake. Was it even real? A dream? No… something told him it wasn't. Something told him he was in danger.

Off into the emptiness he could hear something, though he wasn't sure what it was. It was distant and distorted. What was it saying? It was so familiar…

"Mai… I am so sorry… Mai!"

That voice…

Eyes opened, taking in the sights yet unable to name them. Everything seemed blank… and gold. He was so tired… What was going on? The voice…

"MAI!"

The sharpness of the female voice grabbed his attention. With aching movements he was able to turn his head toward the direction of the sound. Startlement filled him as he realized that owner of the voice was right by the bed.

It was Ayako.

"Oh, I was so worried!" she shrieked. Before he could even realize what she was doing, the woman lunged at him, encasing him in a tight grasp, pulling him to her chest. "I thought…"

Lin was unable to understand the last of her statement, for his head swam and he nearly swooned. He seemed so light headed, so light in general. His depth perception was off… Did he hit his head? A concussion? It must have been something serious. He couldn't imagine why Ayako would be so friendly, so touchy-feely with him. They were co-workers, but it had never amounted to anything other than that. It was a weak friendship at least. Not like what he had with Naru, not even what he had with Mai, as little as there was of whatever that _something_ was.

Finally, the silence started to wear off, the words started to make sense once more, and Ayako was still firing off sentence after sentence. He doubted she had even stopped.

"You idiot!" she continued to shriek in relieved hysterics, "When I said 'Don't haunt me when you drown' I was only _joking!_" Now it was Ayako's turn to go silent, her voice choked with emotion, tears streaming down her face. She buried her head in his shoulder, her body shaking as she cried.

"Ayako…?" His voice sounded higher than he was use to. His head must have been hit pretty hard. Ignoring the strangeness, he continued. "What's wrong?"

As soon as the words left his mouth everything came crashing down on him, reminding him of the dire situation he as was in.

"What happened to Mai?" Lin demanded seriously, pushing away from his coworker and looking at her in the face, making sure she wouldn't dare lie.

There were no secrets on her face, instead he saw confusion, which puzzled him. Had he slurred when he spoke?

"Mai," he repeated, "She was under for so long before I got to her. Is she alright?"

Ayako just stared, her lips locked tightly together, her eyes confused…and something else. Shock? No… it was more like… horror. But why?

"What. Happened. To. Mai." Lin repeated slowly, enunciating each word so that Ayako could understand him, even with her lapse of sanity.

"What are you talking about?" Ayako answered, her voice sounded strange. It was strained, filled with uncertain fear, just like her eyes. It was filled with panic. "Mai? What are you talking about? You're fine…"

"You're fi-?"

It clicked.

Lin didn't know why he even thought what he was thinking --there was no way he could be Mai-- yet it just seemed to make sense. The snake… The dream… The way Ayako was acting toward him… Why he couldn't remember what she was talking about…

He pushed past her-- ignoring her frantic cry of "Lin!" as he moved --barely having time to shove away the blankets covering him before he planted his feet on the floor and began walking. There had to be something, a reflective surface of some sort. It was the only way to be sure…

The Chinese man ran his hands across his face as he searched, feeling the startling differences, yet denying that it was true until he actually saw himself. It was his face, he could feel his hands against his face, his face against his hands. He was definitely here. But it felt wrong. The ears were firmer at the lobes, like they were pierced but without earrings. The face itself wasn't as long, instead it was rounded, covered in soft skin with no feeling of a 5 O'clock shadow starting. Even the nose was different. It was smaller, rounder, leading down to fuller lips.

_Stay calm, stay calm. You can't do anything if you lose your head. You need to stay calm… _He reminded himself sternly, yet the thuddering in his heart still kept growing.

There, off into a corner on a wall was a mirror. He nearly had to hold his legs in place in order to keep from running over to the truth-seer. Somehow, his self restraint kept him from bolting, though the length of time it took to start walking seemed like forever.

But he never got to the mirror.

Instead, his eyes locked on something that changed everything even faster than the mirror could have.

The bed next to his. How he hadn't notice that there was another one, another person, in the room he had no idea. Perhaps he was more hysterical than he thought, missing such an important fact…

It was strange. Lin had thought that seeing the answer would calm him down, that knowing would allow him to accept it, to move on, to try and fix it… But it was different. He couldn't move. Willing his body to move did nothing. His hand wouldn't move when he told it to reach out, his leg wouldn't move when he told it to walk, his mouth wouldn't move when he told it to speak…

All he could do was stare.

Stare at himself.

Yes, it was definitely strange. There was probably nothing stranger than staring at your own sleeping form. Scream? Cry? Silence? Laughter? Multitudes of things he could be doing, yet he could do none.

For a moment, he was grateful, for he didn't want to have to explain his reaction to Ayako, who was spooked enough as it was.

Ayako.

The thought seemed to wake Lin up, and he was able to tear his eyes away from the body on the bed and return them to the woman who was going into more hysterics than he was.

The woman's eyes were strangely dull, her lip quivering strangely as though she were going to cry, yet she was strangely calm. All the color had drained from her face, no sign of emotion on the statuesque expression of hers aside from her eyes and lips. She was standing now, perfectly strait, and staring. Staring into space like she wasn't even there, like it was _her_ that wasn't in her own body…

"Ayako," Lin said calmly, keeping his voice steady-- which was easier than he had imagined --in order to keep the priestess relaxed and able to answer him. He took a step closer to her, moving slowly as all the thoughts running through is mind jumped to the same question. "Where is Naru?"

* * *

The stoic teenager was in the lobby. Lin was almost surprised that he was there; it wasn't like him. The assistant was sure that his boss would either be in another bedroom for rest, or else in the room that was being used as a base. After all, there was no doubt that a base was set up immediately following the incident at the lake. Not that Lin knew how long he was out for, and Mai was still unconscious…

Instead, Naru was sitting in a large red leather chair, placed at an angle so he could see the large roaring fire in the fireplace, so that he could feel the intense heat. Under more scrutiny, Lin realized that his stoic boss was asleep, his head propped up on a fisted hand. It was odd to see his boss just sitting there in such a vulnerable position. There were few times Lin saw him like this. The young teen wasn't serious and in work-mode at the moment, but he wasn't relaxed, not even in his sleep. Naru didn't look peaceful, not in the least. He looked worn out, stressed, with bags under his eyes --a look that Naru never showed to anyone, not unless he didn't realize they were watching.

And Naru hadn't.

His assistant's presence wasn't even noticed, Naru's usually aware body not stirring in the least, instead remaining asleep. If Lin paid enough attention, he could hear the soft intakes and exhales of his boss's breath. It was even, soft, and the most normal the teen had seen in a while. The most human…

_Naru… _Lin thought.

A hand reached up to chest immediately, for his heart gave a strange flutter. His eyes shifted the clenched appendage, fascinated. He had never felt this sort of thing before, but the body he resided in had. The Chinese man tried to place the feeling, it was so strange. It beat fast and strong, as though it was in fear, but it wasn't a bad feeling. Instead of adrenaline and the "Fight or Flight" mechanism filling his senses, he was instead overwhelmed with warmth. From the extra blood the heart was pumping of course…

Lin regained his head and looked back at his sleeping boss.

He needed to talk to Naru.

Yet, as he once again took in the sight of his sleeping form, he couldn't help but feel that he should wait in telling him about the body switch, that he should let him sleep a little more. The teenager wasn't at peace, but the sleep was no doubt helping him relax… if only a little.

No, Lin shook his head, the strange sensation of Mai's short hair swishing a cross his face finalizing his resolve to wake him.

He walked forward.

* * *

Mai had finally calmed down.

Was she freaked out that she now had the body of a man, her coworker no less? Yes. Was there an unidentifiable sensation in her stomach right now? Yes. Was she having an internal meltdown at the fact that she had no clue how to return to her body? Yes. Was she so freaked out that she was throwing tantrums and unable to reason, much less function? No.

Her face heat up in an embarrassed blush.

She couldn't believe she acted like that in front of Naru; So childish, so immature…

What had she done exactly? She couldn't quite remember.

She had been freaked, that was for sure. Mai felt that word quite fit what she had been feeling. Freaked. It was a good word. She remembered being in shock, disbelief, horror…denial. She had screamed, she had cried. She had basically ripped her hair out of her skull-- she still felt the sting of it now. But worse was what she had done to Naru.

Now her mind was really fuzzy.

She couldn't quite place what she had done to him, but it must have been something terrible for he nunchucked her to the floor. That was how she would describe it, for there was no way that he would _throw _her to the floor. He couldn't have been that angry.

That… angry…

Mai felt a sudden wave of dread.

"Naru's probably pissed…" she said glumly, the sense of foreboding growing worse. "Ah, well. He couldn't do anything worse to me. I'll just deal with it when it comes. Hehe…" She tried to laugh it off, but her smile felt like it was the fakest in her life; it didn't even fool her.

Before she new it she was on the first floor of the inn, though she hadn't realized she had been walking. All she had wanted was some fresh air… She had forgotten how much longer Lin's legs must be than hers. The distance would be cut shorter from his long strides. It was so hard to think of herself in his body. It felt… weird… Almost like she was a pervert or something.

She gave a shudder at the thought.

Mai didn't hate Lin, but she didn't overly love him either. He was an attractive man, in a stoic way, but not like her boss. Not like Naru… She was sure if she gave Lin a chance they could become close friends, but being in his body was not the road she had wanted to take in becoming one to him.

Her stomach gave a queasy turn, the strange sensation growing stronger as it did.

The sound of loud voices caught her attention. They were loud, but strained, and seemed to be coming from the direction of the lobby. Curious, she decided to take a look.

It was the SPR team, all circled around the fireplace. Peaking around the doorframe, she saw that they were actually encircling Naru, who was sitting on a chair. Everyone was there. John, the monk, Ayako, even Masako, and--

He breath caught in her throat.

Her body, standing, talking…

It was odd, seeing your body walking and talking, acting on its own without your permission.

She could see the difference though.

Mai was a hyperactive girl, always optimistic and smiling. She didn't have perfect posture, and was always doing one outburst or another…

Now that Lin was in control…

Lin's version of Mai's body was quiet, arms crossed over her chest. She stood perfectly still, perfectly strait, and seemed to be giving off an unfriendly "Keep Away" aura. It wasn't very pronounced, but she could tell it was there. Mai, who was a touch feely "I want to hug you" type of girl, now saw herself as completely anti-social, and distant.

It was like she had fallen into an alternate universe!

Feeling like she was doing something bad by hiding, Mai decided to announce herself, or at least walk quietly into the room. The group was no doubt wanting to know her view of the situation and what had happened. Even though she was different, like this… She could still be of some help.

Mai tried to be confident. She was also a member of the SPR team, so she had every right to be in the room as they did, joining in on the conversation. All she had to do was walk through the doorway with her head held high and tell them that this whole situation was ridiculous and that they needed to find a way to change them back as quickly as possible.

But instead Mai found herself walking in silently, her head down, as though she had hijacked her coworkers body and was perversely using it to her own whims. The very thought of it made her give a deep blush of embarrassed guilt, her face heating up until she was sure she must look like a red tomato. She said nothing, choosing to be as discreet as possible. For some reason the thought of attention on her was terrifying. She felt disgusting. Not because of the body being a man's… She just felt… bad.

No one noticed her as she walked in, everyone too engrossed in the conversation to realize the extra member to the party. She was fine with this, choosing to stand next to John, closest to the corner leading to the door. From here she could hear the conversation.

"I can believe that Lin changed bodies with Mai, there's no doubt about that," Ayako was saying. There was blunt aggressiveness to her voice. She didn't seem to like the idea of a man in control of a girl's body at all, much less her friend's. Or perhaps it wasn't about that at all, maybe it was that she had some sort of previous contempt for Lin. "But how do we know Mai switched bodies with Lin's? For all we know she's…out there somewhere!" she finished loudly, her arms going wide to explain "out there". There was a form of exasperated panic in her voice.

They didn't understand the situation any better than she did, besides the fact that she new she was safe, in Lin's body.

"No," a voice of monotone said after a few seconds. It was her boss, no doubt. Naru. "Mai is in Lin's body. With the way he was acting earlier there's no other explanation than that. If Lin is now in Mai's body, that means someone else was in his body. If it were a spirit, it would have been more calm since it was the one that caused the body-switch in the first place. Even if you were to argue that he was in control of his body at the time, I highly doubt that Lin would react so irrationally. Whoever was in his body at the time had no self restraint and was incapable of thinking logically, much less clearly. I had to throw him to the floor just to keep him from hurting himself."

Mai felt the face of Lin's body heat up at the words, her blush growing even deeper, while Naru cast a glance at the body of the stoic Mai, a flicker of apology passing through his eyes. Strange how she could pick up on these subtle things now that she was in Lin's body. He seemed no different from what he usually was, yet she could clearly see that he had apologized to Lin…

"I'm sorry."

John jumped a little, hearing the faint voice of someone beside him when no one was supposed to be there at all. The others turned at his reaction, their faces changing as soon as the saw the Chinese man next to the Australian. They were shocked for a moment, first at seeing him, and then at seeing him with such an expression.

It didn't seem real; Lin with a blush, Lin with embarrassed eyes, Lin saying he was sorry.

Takigawa let out a surprised gasp, "Holy shi-:

"Mai!" Ayako called in relief, wanting to rush over and hug the _true_ Mai, but the rest of the group got in her path. For once, the priestess didn't fight to have her way. There was still the instinct of not being touchy-feely with Lin. Mai being in control of his body didn't change that.

"Do you remember anything Mai?" came Naru's voice again. He was continuing the use of the monotone, yet she could undoubtedly pick up an undertone of soothing concern. He was trying to keep her relaxed… to reassure her.

How had she never picked up on these subtle things before?

Mai ignored that thought to answer her boss's question. Closing her eyes, she tried to recall what had happened hours before… or had it turned into a day?

Running… she had been running. She could still feel the sand as it flew around her ankles, the cold wind across her face, the frantic need to find someone. She had reached the water, but it was already too late, so she had jumped in, diving deeper and deeper.

She could feel the sweat forming across her brow as she remembered.

The dread had been almost suffocating, not being able to find whatever had been lost. And then she had felt it, the small form of a high school gi-

Mai opened her eyes with a start.

"Lin…" she said simply, unable to say anything else. She looked toward the man, her own body, to see if he understood.

He nodded back at himself, an awkward exchange of knowledge.

Turning back to Naru, she answered the question truthfully, "I can't remember what happened to me. The only things I can recall are what Lin saw. He wasn't there until I was already under the water. Everything after that…" she faded off, signifying that the knowledge ended with her passing out.

"Wait a minute," John asked, his eyes burrowed in confusion, "Naru, I thought you said Lin…er… Mai, was saying something about hands?"

Naru seemed to be asking the same question and turned back to his formerly male-souled assistant.

Mai tried to remember again, but it was useless.

There was nothing in her memory about hands or anything of the sort.

"Maybe the transformation wasn't complete until a while ago. The memories may have been the last thing to change…" the monk suggested, his hand gripping his chin in thought. "But then wouldn't… Lin!"

The unemotional high schooler shook her head from side to side, as though she had already been asked the question before.

"Mai's body was in shock at the time. It will be a while before the memories come back."

That's all he said, just that, simple and factual, so much like him, only it was odd for such a detached phrase to come out of Mai's mouth.

"Well," Takigawa interrupted the silence, "It can't get any worse than this."

"Yes, it can." Mai gulped, the sensation different as it passed down Lin's throat. She had finally figured out what that strange feeling in the pit of her stomach was, though she wished she hadn't.

The monk looked at her confused, as did everyone else.

Mai took another gulp before letting the words escape her lips.

"I have to go to the bathroom."


	3. Chapter 3

"Can you hold it?" Ayako asked, a sharpness to her voice, a hysteria. "Hold it okay! You've got to hold it!"

"I can't!" she whimpered for the third time, Lin's voice already cracking from the strain of trying to keep the bladder from exploding, even though Mai was making Lin's legs clamp tightly shut. It wasn't working anymore. Over an hour had passed, and the sensation had only gotten worse; now it almost hurt.

Mai was about ready to cry, her tears forming in the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill over. It was strange, even though it was Mai the body was Lin, and watching Lin cry was so strange and unknown, that for a moment all trains of thought were stopped within the group as they watched the scene unfold.

Lin, who was conveniently being ignored now that he was in Mai's body, sat next to his computer. He was supposed to be researching for something that could get them to change back, or at least explain why they had changed in the first place, but Lin found that he couldn't help but watch what was going on. He was pitying his own body, and found it so very peculiar watching it hop around while trying not to cry.

"The lake!" Takigawa suddenly thought out loud, his face going blank in expression as the thought hit him. "She can pee in the lake!"

For a moment, Mai felt Lin's face curve into a relieved smile, but this movement was suddenly ceased when Ayako burst out "She's not going to pee in the lake!"

Now tears really did come.

"Ah, hell," the monk sighed in defeat at the sight of Lin's crying form. He was at a loss of what to do, and if Lin was crying (even if it was Mai) there was really only one thing left that they _could _do. "Lin," he started, turning his form to the finally recognized body of Mai, sitting quietly at the computer.

Lin felt the girl's heart clench at the sudden attention, but Lin kept the face serene and unreadable. "Yes." he answered. He still wasn't used to thinking in his own voice and hearing it come out as words in a voice that was so high and innocent. It made him stop for a moment and think. "Mai," he continued, his gaze locked on his own body, the body that was bawling and jumping, and doing everything but holding the genitals in an attempt to stop the inevitable flow.

Mai was still too innocent to do that.

Trying not to sigh, Lin felt the soft hand he now controlled go up to his forehead, like a soothing let's-end-this-now sort of gesture. "The bathroom is down the hall."

The hopping stopped, and Lin saw his body stare back at him in horror.

"But… I can't! I… I…" now a frantic blush seeped across the male face, "I've never even seen one… much less… much less…" the blush was now as red as the lipstick the priestess was wearing.

"In any case," the body of Mai said, turning back to the computer in a dismissive way, carefully avoiding thinking about the words she had just said. He wasn't going to argue the situation any more. "You're going to have to get used to using the body for such necessary things. If you can't even do this, how will you take a shower or a bath? Even changing clothes will be a hassle, and I won't have you sacrificing the hygiene of my body for your own selfish reasons."

Mai let out a small squeak at her boss's assistant's way of thinking. She hadn't thought about that at all. If she couldn't even do such things as this…

"Wait," Mai thought out loud. Lin was acting way too calm for this to be completely one sided. He would have at least said something in defense of his body, since Lin wasn't the type of man that liked showing his nakedness to others. The very thought of his doing such a thing made Mai almost get dizzy. But if he didn't seem to care, didn't that mean… "You… in my body… you've…" she started, biting Lin's lip in order to keep from having to finish the embarrassing question.

"Yes" was all that was replied.

If there had ever been a time, or even a moment, where either Lin or Mai had given such a horrified face, none of the group members could recall it.

Head down, Lin's voice came from the now calmed form. "Okay."

Lin had already touched her body, had already _seen _her body. And if Lin could do it so nonchalantly… Mai was going to have to get used to it as well. Suddenly, Mai found a new respect for Lin. The moment the switch had been discovered, she had nearly gone insane with the information, yet Lin had handled it so calmly. He had controlled his thoughts and gone strait to Naru, calmly telling him what had happened. From there on he simply accepted what was happening, and treated it no differently than any other sort of happenings that had occurred on their cases.

Lin really was incredible.

Trying to live up to the admired counter-part to the curse, Mai felt herself moving Lin's body in a pivot, and start walking out the door.

She was nearly free, her mind made up, and her resolve solid. She could handle this. She could handle this. It wasn't so bad. If Lin could do this sort of thing with no effort, she could do it with only a little. She was just as capable as-

"Remember Mai!" Takigawa's voice came loudly from the room, "Grip! Aim! Fire!"

She couldn't do this.

* * *

Never before had Mai ever thought that a toilet could be so ominous. It seemed, at the moment, that if a spirit started crawling from the pipes and out of the bowl, then it would be only natural, and even less scary. Yet there was no movement from anywhere near the porcelain glass, and there was absolutely no sense that a spirit was anywhere near it.

Mai almost wished there was.

She let out an aggravated sigh and stood from her sitting position on the tub's edge.

She needed to get this over with. Any longer and Lin would need a new pair of pants, and explaining that to the stoic man would be even worse than having to pee in his body. Even if he was currently occupying _her_ body, Mai still found him absolutely terrifying when she had to tell him something embarrassing.

Cautiously, she stepped toward the toilet, her fingers working numbly at the button on the pants, ever so slowly having the zipper move down. She made sure to keep her eyes up at the ceiling as she worked, not wanting to risk a reflection from the water below her.

She would go, but she didn't _technically _have to see anything.

But Mai was suddenly at a loss.

What was she supposed to do now? After squatting her entire life, she wasn't really sure how to go standing up. Sure, she had the "pleasant" advice from the monk, but that still told her absolutely nothing about the process of…

She looked down, irritated. Was she supposed to pull the pants down? She had seen TV shows where guys were talking in the bathroom in front of the urinals, and none of them had their pants down... right? But this was her first time, and she wasn't supposed to be any good at doing this… sort of thing, on her first time, right? And it wasn't like anyone was going to walk in on her to see if she was doing it correctly…

Her eyes flickered over to the door to the bathroom, staring at the golden handle, making sure the lock was turned and the knob had the button pressed inside.

It was.

Sighing in relief, she pulled Lin's pants down.

She froze, taking in the sight of Lin's boxers.

That hadn't been expected, so much in fact that she nearly grinned.

Lin, stoic Lin, was always so proper and businesslike. Mai never really though about what kind of underwear he wore, but she would never have thought him to be the kind of guy to wear boxers. They just seemed… too carefree. Boxers were what high school boys wore, or for people who didn't care much about whether or not their underwear was visible from their pants. Lin seemed more of the briefs kind of man, yet even those didn't sound right.

Now that she was thinking about it, Mai realized that all the kinds of underwear that had ever been created didn't seem to be business-like enough for Lin to be wearing.

Yet he had chosen blue boxers.

Mai felt like she was in an alternate universe. Lin and boxers, boxers and Lin…

Had she misjudged him? Was he really like the type of person who wore such underwear? Was he really only stoic and business-like because ever time she had seen him had been at the office where business took place? Now that she thought about it, she didn't really know anything about Lin. Sure, he was an onmyouji, but what was his favorite kind of movie? Food? Did he like dating? Was he dating?

But she didn't have time to think about answers, because Lin's bladder suddenly screamed at her to move, threatening to spew if she didn't.

"Alright! Alright!" she argued back; not that she ever argued back at a bladder before...

Holding her breath, Mai slid down the fabric of the boxers, sliding them past the hips, past the butt… She knew this probably wasn't how she was supposed to go about doing it, but she was a girl, who just happened to be in a man's body.

And now.

Taking in a deep breath, and holding it, Mai ordered Lin's hands forward, and made them grip the member.

She shuddered. It was an odd sensation, and it scared her that it didn't feel as terrible or wrong as it felt like it was going to be. But it was still wrong. She was touching Lin's… she was gripping Lin's…

Shaking her head widely to clear her mind, Mai started to go by the process the monk had told her. "Aim." she reminded herself. Now, Mai had never been good at sports. Sure, she was able to hit a ball or catch one if need be, but when throwing or aiming… she was always slightly off. So now that the situation called for it, the high school girl found herself praying.

"Please hit the target! Please hit the target! I don't know what I'm going to do if I miss! How could I miss at this range? Please don't let me miss!"

Step number three: "Fire" she breathed.

And it did.

Warmth suddenly overwhelmed her, as well as the greatest sensation she had ever experienced: relief from agonizing pain and embarrassment. The sound of pee hitting water in a steady stream was like a long awaited lullaby to her, and she felt her muscles start to relax the longer she listened to it, a loud and content sigh coming out of Lin's mouth as she did.

She stayed like that for a while, waiting for the stream to finally die down. She really had been holding it for a long time…

When it did end, Mai was at another crossroads.

Was she supposed to wipe? The paper was there, waiting to be grabbed… But it didn't seem like there as a lot left on the… thing.

"It's not that big a deal," she told herself angrily, her hand swiping a few sheets of the toilet paper from the roll. Seriously, since when was peeing so hard to do?

Blushing as she got closer to the tip, she closed her eyes. A quick swipe at the flesh and she was done. Throwing the disgraced paper into the water, she flushed.

Quickly, the fabric of the boxers and pants were pulled back up, the zipper zipped, the button buttoned, and all sings of her humiliation were gone.

A cunning smile now on her lips from her successful deed, she made her way to the sink, running the hot water until steam rose, and pumping soap onto the male hand she controlled. Lots and lots of soap.

At least five pumps.

Humming made its way out of her vocal cords, coming out of Lin's mouth in a surprisingly beautiful way.

_Strange_, Mai thought, _I never knew Lin could sing._

Once again, she was reminded of how little she actually new about her coworker.

She scrubbed at her hands painfully, and for a long time. I wasn't really because they were dirty, but it also wasn't because she thought it was gross at what she had just done. She wasn't even sure why she was doing it. But somewhere, in the back of her mind, she wondered if she was doing it because she felt dirty. After all, she had basically defiled Lin…

Defiled. Lin.

"Oh God," she choked, pushing harshly against the handles of the faucet to stop the flow of water.

She nearly collapsed against the sink, her head falling into the bowl, her hands gripping the counter with all her strength just to keep standing.

"How can I live with myself…" she grumbled. "I… to Lin. And I'm still a virgin." Now she truly fell, Lin's legs giving way so he fell on his knees. "I can never get married."

"_You're going to have to get used to using the body for such necessary things._"

Lin's words echoed in her head, and for some reason, coming from him, she didn't feel so helpless. After all, Lin would probably feel worse from his standpoint. He, as a man, had to touch a girl. An under aged high-schooler. He was the one who had the right to feel like he had defiled someone. Not her. Not Mai.

"Alright!" Mai ordered herself in a pep-talk like way, "You got through it! Now nothing can stop you!" Realizing she was still posed with Lin's head in the sink, she figured she had to get up now. The others were probably starting to worry about her, probably wondering if she flushed herself down the toilet. Lin's body shook slightly as she stood, his muscles stiff from sitting on his knees for so long, but Mai was able to bare with it.

Making sure she didn't look like a complete and total wreck, Mai carefully observed Lin's face in the mirror. His hair was a little disheveled from being in the sink, but she quickly ran Lin's fingers through it, making it lay flat again. Other than that he seemed perfectly normal. Though there was a little puffiness around his eyes since crying had occurred earlier…

"Well then, now that everything's in check, I can-"

Something caught her eyes as it was reflected in the mirror. Off in the corner, above the bathtub and on the ceiling, something large and black hung there. At first she thought it was a towel, but how could a towel be stuck up there? And it was too large to be a spider. So what was it?

Leaning closer to the mirror to figure out what it was, the thing realized she was watching it, and it grinned.

* * *

"NO WAY!" Ayako shrieked, disturbing Lin's concentration as he typed away at the computer in front of him.

"Face it, Madam Priestess," Takigawa said with a cocky grin, "You suck at cards."

"I do not!" she protested loudly, embarrassed anger evident in her tone of voice.

"Apparently, you do," the sounds of fake poker chips being collected filled Mai's ears, making Lin only wish they had gone to bed with everyone else. Naru had been the first to go, almost immediately after the situation with Mai having Lin's body and needing to go to the bathroom. He never was one to make a big deal out of little things. John had followed him soon after, excusing himself from having to play poker, and Miss Hara had gone to bed soon after she realized Naru had as well.

So now, when Lin finally had time to work without having anything else pressing at the time, he was forced to be in the company of the two most immature workers of the group.

Refraining from sighing, Lin only continued to stare at the computer screen.

So far he had come up empty handed, with absolutely no information about spiritual backgrounds of the area that would be linked to body switches. He did, however, find an odd article about hikers that kept going missing in the area, but with such a dense forest surrounding everything and paths that were extremely difficult to see in the day, much less the dark, Lin wasn't sure how much credit he could give the information for being a factor in their ordeal.

But he wouldn't leave it out. After all, every angle needed to be worked, no matter how small.

Using Mai's small arms to push himself away from the computer, Lin reached for the thin folder that contained all that was known about the case, and placed the printed copy of the article inside. It was almost infuriating how useless everything seemed to be, and even though he was glad that no one died or got seriously hurt from the spirit's attack, he found what had happened very inconvenient.

_Perhaps tomorrow I-_

Gripping pain enveloped Mai's neck, causing Lin to drop the file and reach for her throat. Air wouldn't come in through his mouth, and he winced as the pressure got tighter, the force got more deadly.

And then the sensation was gone, leaving Lin gasping and sweating.

"Lin, are you alright?" the concerned voice of the monk called.

The Chinese man nodded, not really sure what had just happened. There was no spirit in the room that could have done that, and he would have sensed if it had attacked him from afar. But there had been no signs. It was as though he wasn't the one being attacked…

He bolted up from his desk, using so much force that the chair he sat in was knocked over. He didn't care, and ran as fast as he could out of the room, only one thought ringing desperately in his mind.

_Mai!_

* * *

The door was locked; the room behind it was silent.

Lin slammed into the wood with his shoulder, the small form of Mai giving almost no contest to the heavy wood.

_Damn it!_ Lin hissed to himself, backing away from the door and getting in stance for a powerful kick. There wasn't as much muscle to Mai's leg as there was to Lin's, but it was enough to break the door's lock when bombarded with precise aim.

"Mai!" Lin yelled, rushing through the door and into the bathroom.

For a moment Lin could do nothing, only stare in horror at the scene before him, his body temporarily frozen in fear.

Lin's body was shoved against the wall, the edge of the sink pressing into his back in a way that would leave a deep bruise. His head had been shoved so forcefully against the mirror that the reflection had been overrun with cracks, shattered reflective pieces covering his clothes and the sink. And he was being forced to stay there by the black _thing_ on top of him. It was human like in form, like a shadow come to life, but it was too dark for that, much too dark, and it had no face. All it had was a wide mouth, grinning wider and wider as the hand grasping around its victim's neck got tighter and tighter. Strangling his body and killing off Mai's soul!

Mai was trying to get Lin's body to breathe for her, but no air could make it into Lin's lungs, instead the mouth gasped and gagged, only without sound; in complete silence.

The sight knocked Lin back to his senses.

Two fingers shoved themselves into Mai's mouth, and a loud haunting whistle filled the heavy silence of the bathroom. Immediately, streaks of blinding white light filled the room, attacking the darkness that was the shadowed figure, piercing through it and making its mouth change from a grin into a surprised frown.

The thing released its grip, allowing the unconscious body to fall to the ground hard, the head smacking against the floor as it landed.

And then the thing was gone.

"MAI!" Lin screamed, the girl's voice sounding the most masculine it had ever been as he tried to run toward the limp body. He had called for his shikigami in Mai's body, using more spiritual power than she had stored, and now he was paying for it. Already the muscles felt numb, even the head on her shoulders felt too heavy to hold up, yet he knelt down beside the unconscious form. He wrapped the arms of the body he was possessing around the body of the one Mai possessed. Shaking her, he tried to wake her up, to get any signs that his familiar form would open its eyes as Mai willed them to. But she wouldn't move. "Mai!? Mai! Can you hear me!?"

He had just gone through this! Mai had just gone through this! Why was it always Mai!? Why was she always the one who had to suffer!? Why!?

"Pretty, Pretty."

Mai's body froze as the sound of the voice filled her ears, making Lin's soul stiffen with cold terror. He could feel a bead of sweat drip down his host's face as the overwhelming presence solidified itself next to him. Right beside him. Right by his side.

And he had no more power left.

He was defenseless.

"Such a pretty Pretty. Pretty.

Slowly, Mai's head turned, allowing Lin full sight of the presence.

A black figure, bending down right next to his face, faceless except for a wide grin.

A wide grin filled with pearly white teeth.

"Such a pretty Pretty. My pretty Pretty. Can I eat you?"

It leaned in, its grin getting wider, exposing more of the teeth, getting closer and closer to the flesh of Mai's body, threatening to give pain to Lin. He clutched the body in his hands tighter, a last ditch effort to keep Mai covered if the ting changed its mind and wanted to eat them both.

But it gave no signs that it was interested in her, for even though it had no eyes, Lin couldn't help but feel it was staring at him.

"My pretty Pretty. Mine."

Lin slammed his eyes closed, hoping beyond hope that someone would reach them in time, someone who had enough power to get the thing away.

He was engulfed in darkness and screamed.


	4. Chapter 4

**I would just like to say thank you to Southern-Punk . You got me off my lazy ass and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! You're a great fan! XD This chapter is dedicated to you!!!!!!!!!!!**

… **My baby niece just drooled all over my laptop -_- What. A. Brat.**

**HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE! Xs and Os to ya all!!!!!!**

**And I am sorry this chappie is so short, but it is 2 in the morning and I have been watching the Olympics while writing (Apollo *squeal*)**

* * *

"_Nau maku san manda bazara dan kan_!_"_

"Monk!?" Lin burst in relief, Mai's voice breaking as he whip-lashed her head to see the man in the doorway. The girl's hair blindingly whipped across his sight, the effects of a powerful attack of spiritual energy from Takigawa.

It seared past him, sounding like a strong wind, bypassing him and heading straight behind him. Straight to the attacking thing.

The attacking thing.

Panic gripped Lin and another surge or terror overcame him as the presence behind him was remembered. _He had completely forgotten about it! _The moment of relief was so great that his thoughts were completely cleared. It could have killed him in the second he was at a loss. It could have killed all three of them! He clutched the body in his arms closer, waiting for the sound of the creature crying in agony or death.

It didn't come.

The power surge died down, yet the presence still remained. How much Lin wanted silence. Silence meant the thing was dead, or wounded, or even shocked. It was all they needed to make an escape, to get rid of the thing.

But there was no silence. Immediately after the attack the creature began to make noise.

The shadow thing hissed, soon followed with an angry clicking sound making its way out of its terrifying mouth. A terrifying mouth that was no longer grinning.

"W-What the hell _is_ that!?" Takigawa demanded in petrified awe. The dark thing had taken on a great surge of energy that should have completely purified it, yet it didn't even seem to be phased!

It only seemed angry now; very, very angry.

"Mean. Mean meat," the thing said quietly, as though contemplating; talking to itself. The mere fact that it was capable of _thinking _sent a shiver across Mai's small body, originating from the emotions of the older man. The shadow thing did not notice this new fear, instead it turned away from its former victims and focused its attention on the new addition to the room. The new addition that attacked him. "Mean meat!" it repeated accusingly. No sooner had the words left its mouth, it got a new gleam. A gleam of expectant excitement. "I eat meat!"

"_MONK!_" Lin screamed, Mai's voice coming out more powerful and fearful than he had ever heard it. Takigawa needed to get out of the way! To run! To flee! Even if he could dodge it would be enough!

But the part-time monk, full time bass player, wasn't given enough time, for the shadow creature, the _monster, _was aiming for him. Leaping through the air with faster speed than any of them would have thought possible, it descended on the brunette, its teeth bared, an expectant smile making its way across its eerie mouth. It was like a panther, lunging with its claws out, its figure curved.

The murderous creature was going in for the kill.

And then Lin rose.

It occurred so fast that no one was sure what was going on until it happened. Takigawa was wide eyed and already wincing from the pain to come. Mai's body was crying as Lin could only watch in horror as his coworker was going to die.

But he didn't, for Lin was in the way.

As the thing came within the last few inches of the kill, Lin was in the way. His tall figure completely shielded the Takigawa, his hand lifted, blocking the attacker's advances as completely as he shielded the monk.

There was no sound. There was no breeze.

He was just suddenly there.

It was all too surreal. The fact that Lin had gotten between the monster and the monk so fast, or the fact that the creature had been stopped… It was unclear which was more unbelievable. Yet, as Lin forced Mai's head to look down where the unconscious man, his own body, had once been, nothing was found.

There was only emptiness.

"Not… possible…" Mai's voice breathed as Lin let her eyes wandered back to the Chinese man saving Takigawa's life.

The only way the body could have gotten there is if Mai had woken up. She had been hurt so bad that that was nearly impossible. Even if she _had _woken, she wouldn't have the strength to reach Takigawa in time. She wouldn't have had the strength even if she wasn't hurt. And she definitely wouldn't be able to stop the powerful creature's attack with only a bare hand. All of it, every single way, everything about what had happened was absolutely impossible.

So how in the world…?

"You!" the creature wailed, staring at the opposing figure in a way that made it seem like it actually had eyes. "YOU!"

As though the sight of Lin's body terrified the thing, or maybe it was only that it was surprised, the creature disappeared.

Gone.

In the blink of an eye. In less than a blink. In the same speed as their savior appeared, the monster was gone. But that wasn't what either the Chinese man or Takigawa were concerned with.

It was Lin; Lin's body.

Something wasn't right. Something was off. Not entirely wrong, but different. And neither of the men could quite put their finger on what it was. He looked the same, he had the same height, the same hair, the same clothes that Mai had put him into… Yet his presence was different. It was _so_ different that for a moment he was unrecognizable.

Slowly, tiredly, the arm that defeated the madly grinning creature began to lower, continuing until it was left limply at his side.

"Mai…?" the monk asked hesitantly, questioningly. _Was she alright?_

But they knew. Inside their gut, for reasons unknown, they knew. This wasn't Mai. The aura around the body she was supposed to reside in was completely wrong. It wasn't her aura, nor was it Lin's. The atmosphere around them did not feel bubbly nor stoic; emotional nor serious. The man was not crying, not trembling, nor calm.

He was completely unknown.

And then the man looked up, looking straight at Mai's body, looking in such a way that Lin couldn't help but feel that the man was looking straight past the girl's flesh and into his soul, not seeing the façade their body switch had caused.

Looking with silver eyes.

It was extremely strange, almost unnerving, seeing his reflection like figure staring back at him with a different eye color. He was certain his eyes were a dark brown. There was no way dark brown could be mistaken for silver.

"Possession," Takigawa said as he collected himself in a more serious manner, his voice a mixture of trust for his savior, along with hostility to the possessor of his friend. He didn't need to see the strange new eyes to tell; he could put two and two together with the movements and aura alone.

But Lin had seen beyond that. He had seen so far beyond the fact that Mai's whole body started shaking uncontrollably.

The aura overwhelming them had been recognized. It was Time.

Time. Experience. Power. Energy. The thing residing where Mai was supposed to be was old, extremely old, and very powerful. It was as though they could be completely destroyed, not just killed, but _destroyed_ by the mere _whim _of this being. Yet it was compassionate and intelligent.

Lin shook Mai's head in denial, not wanting to admit it, not wanting to have to go through this situation again.

But he couldn't convince himself otherwise, no matter how hard he tried, for the evidence was there.

No _spirit _could physically stop something as strong as the shadow thing. No _human_ could move with such flawless speed and unparalleled strength. No _monster _would save them; sparing their lives…

There was no other possibility of what it could be.

The thing before them, the thing staring at them with those omnipotent silver eyes, the thing that had saved them…

It was a god.

* * *

"_On baishiraman taya sowaka! On isha naya in tara ya sowaka! On jite rashi itara jiba ratanō SOWAKA!" _The monk frantically chanted, his hands forming the seals just as fast as he had spoken.

A radiant surge of purification force spread throughout the room, so strong in force that it was visible as a glimmering transparent blue light.

It blasted into the possessed body without mercy, and the possessor's aura was soon gone.

Free, the body went limp, the knees buckling, the body falling to the floor in a crumpled heap.

"Oof!" the monk sounded as he felt the weight of the man's limp form against his chest. He had tried to catch his companion, but he misjudged the weight of Lin's body and was nearly dragged to the floor along with it.

"Both thunderbolts and outer lion?" came Mai's small voice, having recognized the incantations.

"Yeah. Something like _that_ needed something with _oomph_. I was going to say them all, but I guess only three were needed." he answered, not noticing how detached the girl's voice had sounded; how distant. Instead he focused on the deadweight against his chest. "Seriously," the bass player groaned, shifting the unconscious man over his shoulder and gripping the back of the man's knees tightly in support, "How is it you're so heavy!?"

"I train," Mai's voice came in reply. Still not sounding as usual, still not noticed by the monk. The girl's body was still fearful, although now it was merely trembling, no longer all out shaking.

"Ah, right," Takigawa blurted, finally putting two and two together. "Martial Arts yields muscle. I should have known that."

When no reply came back to him the monk knew something was wrong, only by then even the trembling had subsided. Now Mai's body just stared off straight ahead, as though in deep thought, or not thinking about anything at all.

Standing up completely, the monk adjusted Lin's unconscious body on his shoulder slightly more. "Hey, what do you think the thing that was possessing her was?"

This question seemed to snap Lin out of his daze, and he sent his younger coworker's head toward the monk's direction. In one brief moment, everything spilt out of Lin, all of his fears, his realizations, his confusion, his worry, his relief, in a single moment they all flickered across his eyes; telling the monk everything.

But the monk was not looking at Mai's eyes, he was too busy trying to turn around without smacking the extremely tall and extremely unconscious man's head against the doorframe as he turned.

For one slight moment, one single second, Lin thought about telling him everything. About the fact that a god was involved, about the fact that it had seemed to talk to Lin's soul as it stared into his eyes with its own. About the fact that for that brief connection he understood everything: why Mai and him were changed, how they could change back, who the god was, what the creature was, how to defeat the murderous thing, and what the strange feeling that this felt around Naru was. In that moment, Lin wanted to tell Takigawa about his revelations and solve everything immediately, returning to his normal life as it used to be.

But then the moment was gone.

"I don't know," he lied.

* * *

**It is now 2:35. I'm setting this up. If there are mistakes... ignores them for now. I'm too tired.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Yay for flashdrives and a working computer!**

After the strange attack, and even stranger possession, Ayako took a shivering Mai in Lin's body back to their room in order to clean out her wounds and cover them with gauze. They weren't serious, not compared to what they could have been, and there were thankfully no pieces of mirror lodged into Lin's head. It had been a long day, incredibly long, for the young girl. The team was no closer to finding out what had caused her and the Chinese man to switch bodies. They weren't any closer finding out how to change them back. Nor were they any step further in discovering who, or _what, _the thing that attacked her was, much les how to get rid of it entirely. To make matters worse, now an entirely new, and exponentially more _powerful_, entity had entered the picture, and no one had even the faintest idea of what to do about that.

And Mai still hadn't regained any memories, and without her dreams… Well, there was little she could really do to help, and she knew it. At least Lin was able to help with the research and still retained the knowledge about the supernatural that he had due to a lifetime of experience, which was much more than the girl could say for herself. At the moment, Mai felt completely and utterly useless.

"Mai?" Ayako asked gently, seeing the extremely down face of the man before her. The miko removed the washcloth she was using to dab away the blood on her coworker's face. "Am I pressing too hard?"

"Mmnnm," Lin's voice sounded as Mai made his head shake back and forth. "It's not that, it's just…" And then she cried. Everything was so overwhelming. For all she knew, she would be stuck in Lin's body forever. She would never get married, she would never be able to see her old friends at school like this. And what about Lin? How would he go on like this? Sure, as a temporary ordeal they could both handle it, but permanently? Lin must have someone out there he liked. If not, he would always have a chance to start dating and get married. But he couldn't now. Not like this. In fact, there was no true telling as to whether either of them would even survive this. That thing… that grinning, evil, vile _thing_ was so cold, and dark, and Mai didn't even know how they would defeat it. Nothing that powerful had ever specifically targeted anyone in the group before. Yet she could tell just be feeling the thing's aura, she _knew, _that it was going to go after only her and Lin. And with no leads, the others were bound to get hurt while trying to stop it. And here was she, only able to cry.

_How pathetic_, she thought.

"It's alright," Ayako soothed, petting Lin's dark locks in an attempt to soothe the girl. It was all she knew to do. "It's alright, Mai. It'll be alright."

"But I can't do anything! I haven't dreamed at all, and I haven't felt any differences in presences except when that creature was right there. Lin's power is drastically lowered due to this change, and it's my fault and I can't help change us back! I'm useless!"

"What makes you think that?" the miko breathed in surprise, "How in the world could you be at fault? The very thought is ridiculous!"

"If I hadn't gone swimming-"

"Mai," Ayako's stern voice directed. Her hand gripped Lin's chin, making the girl see Ayako straight in the face, straight into the seriousness of her words. "This is not your fault. The only fault you have right now is worrying us sick by trying to take all the blame on yourself. This isn't just your burden. You and Lin aren't just the only ones this affects. This is the team's problem."

"B-But-"

"But nothing!" Ayako snapped, but she leaned forward and gave the older man a hug as she said it. "You are a member of this team, and as such the entire team is looking for a way to change you two back. Lin hasn't given up or tried to blame himself, so don't you dare either! You promise me, okay!"

"Okay," Mai agreed, hugging Ayako back tightly, which caught the priestess off guard since the man's hug was much tighter than she was expecting. She gave off a little squeak of wincing pain, Mai immediately letting her go with a quick apology, but both girls were laughing in spite of themselves.

"Besides," the older woman continued, after having caught her breath, "Lin and Naru are doing everything they can to help resolve the situation. And if there is anyone that could help, it would be someone who doesn't get emotional and always kept their cool so frozen that everyone wonders whether there's a stick lodged up their butt." Ayako gave a slight wink at her comrade. "And that is definitely Naru."

Now the two started in another outburst of laughter, taking twice as long to calm down from this than it was the other one.

"And if I were you, I'd be more worried about changing _back_. After how much you've worried our stoic boss, you're going to be buried in paperwork for _months_!"

"Ugh, don't remind me!" Mai grumbled, stretching her limbs for a bit before adjusting herself in another seated position. "And I'm sorry about being so overwhelmed. You're right. I shouldn't worry until Naru loses it too."

"Like that will ever happen!"

* * *

"Lin," Naru said coldly at the young girl before him. The dark haired man's eyes were glaring, and his face was stern. It was the most emotion that he had shown in anger at his assistant, whether Lin was in his normal body or not. "You were supposed to research this." Naru's arms gripped his chest tightly as he crossed them.

The air was tense, and the remaining members of the SPR team in the room stopped what they were doing at the change in atmosphere the room had undergone. All attention went to the two teens standing before them.

"'Lin!" Naru snapped furiously once he heard no reply.

"I did," Mai's voice said back, quavering for just a moment. Lin did not like the sudden lashing out his boss was doing. It made his chest hurt, and his ears ring. His face was hot, and his blood was hot, and his eyes stung. Perhaps Mai was never yelled at a lot, and the thought of being mad at by Naru was painful to her. That would explain the tears. But it also hurt, and Lin couldn't help but feel sad and full of ache from the angry tone Naru was using at her. He wanted to cry! But he was Lin, whether he was in Mai's body or not, so he held back the tears and tried to keep his composure as best as possible. All this emotion was not like him, and the feelings were not helping. "There is nothing physically documented with relevance to this case on the internet or in any library database. It would appear as though this was the first case of such an event. Soul switching only comes up theoretically, and the theory only includes the idea of it, not the specifics or causes. There's nothing more I can do."

"Masako," Naru now directed, looking at the kimono-wearing medium with a restrained urgency. "Is there a way you can help her? You know the most about the experience of possession out of all of us. What do you know?"

The medium's mouth went open a little, shocked at the sudden demand to know the extent of her capabilities, but she quickly regained her composure. "Unless I am possessed by the same spirit entity as her, there is little I can decipher for you. However, from experience, I know that when possessed the mind is shared by both the soul of the possessing body, and the sole of the body being possessed, and the memories are shared by both entities."

"But Mai can't remember anything, or Lin for that matter, right?" Takigawa reminded in frustration, looking at Lin's host.

There was a delayed response, Lin seeming somewhat surprised at suddenly being called on or something of the sort, but he quickly regained his comprehension and gave a solid, "Right," as an answer.

"Wait," John piped, "You're saying that the events that the spirit goes through are shared within the mind. I haven't come across anything like that in my exorcism cases," but he quickly added, "to that extent at least."

"The nature of the human mind is to put a priority on self preservation," Lin said, his voice enough that Mai's tone showed the somewhat tired feeling of the man.

Takigawa gave a small snort of, "What's that suppos-"

"He means that the mind will cease to think about or accept too traumatizing of events, for the sake of the psyche, and therefore turns them into repressed memories," Naru cut in, suddenly very interested. He spent a great moment thinking to himself after saying this. He wondered why they had not come up with or tried this theory before. If it was true, then it would save them a great deal of time in trying to find out who the spirit was or where their base of being was. At the very least, it would tell them what they were dealing with, and possibly how to resolve the matter altogether.

This was definitely the only lead they had so far.

"Takigawa, John, go bring the equipment. We're going to do a hypnotism."

* * *

"Look into the light," Naru urged gently toward his assistant, his voice rich and lulling. It seemed like it was the only voice in the world. "Feel the warmth of the light surround you…"

Mai did as she was told, staring into the eerie red glow that was filling the room. Her eyelids were already starting to weigh down on her, like she was looking through a haze. She couldn't quite comprehend what was going on around her, but she could hear Naru's voice. Naru's soothing, perfect voice…

"Synchronize your breaths with its illumination…"

Though Mai had been through this process before, back on her first case with the SPR team, she couldn't have recalled the experience completely at the time. The room was dark, and the light was warm. It seemed to pull her in, her mind, her spirit, her thoughts…

"Feel your tension leave you and into the light…" that beautiful voice gently continued to urge. "Focus on the light."

Her mind was leaving her completely, her thoughts blank and dark. She could faintly tell that there was a glow in front of her allowing her to see, yet she couldn't make out what anything was. She did not particularily care… it didn't matter what was going on.

"Listen to my voice… "

Mai could feel it, the light. It was like a gentle pull, almost supernatural, pulling her consciousness away from her as though to separate it from her body. It was painless, and she was filled with calm. She was so at ease she couldn't even feel her body. She was floating in a a sea of relaxation.

And then she couldn't comprehend anything. She couldn't differentiate between the light and darkness in the room. She couldn't feel herself breathing in with each pulse of the glow, and breathing out with the next. The gentle voice she had once heard was no longer in reach of her, yet she had not even noticed.

"Try to remember," Naru ordered calmly, "Remember what it was like to be possessed. Feel the sensation of it through your body. Remember what it feels like."

"It's warm," a small voice said, the words hardly above a whisper. "Like being held by a parent."

"What else?"

"I'm not afraid," Mai continued quietly, her voice still detached from her mind, as though her emotions were speaking for themselves without a conscious effort. "The creature is pushed back. It can't attack me… because it is afraid."

"Was the creature the one that attacked Lin and you in the lake?"

"Yes…" Mai spoke, "But I was saved… It warded it off… and protected us."

"What is it you were being protected against?"

"The remnants of a human soul… The negative emotions of those who have died… solidified into one being," breathed Mai. "It… wants to exist."

Takigawa and John exchanged a glance of equal emotion, but said nothing to break the spell of calm over the girl.

"How does it plan to do this?"

"Taking… bit by bit… the parts that will make him real… By eating humans…" Naru's eyes narrowed at the girl's response. "For each human he devours… the less of a shade he becomes…"

"How did you stop it?"

"I was protected… like before in the lake… It aided me… It came all the way from its shrine because… it heard my fear…"

"Where is the shine located? Where did it come from?"

"A cave half flooded in water… by the cliff."

"What possessed you?" Naru inquired, leaning in closer to the girl though she was still out of reach from him.

No sooner had he finished asking the question, the light bulb cracked, the sound echoing through the small room causing the team members to jump in surprise. Naru cast a cold gaze of anticipation toward the breaking glass, ignoring the startled shrieks and gasps coming from his coworkers. Not even a moment later, the bulb shattered, and the room was cast into darkness.

"Naru!" Mai yelped, her sudden awakening causing Lin's voice to crack. "Who-Who turned out the lights!"


End file.
